University of Connecticut

Department of Modern and Classical Languages

First Annual

Robert Dombroski Italian Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS

Nor do iron bars a prison make

Imprisonment in Italian Culture

Keynote Speaker : Prof. Charles Klopp

September 25-26, 2004

University of Connecticut , Storrs , Connecticut

Since its earliest flowerings, Italian literary and cinematic culture have always produced works centered upon the concept of the prison. From Marco Polo and Dante to Machiavelli, Gramsci, Lina Wertmüller and Benigni, the representation of imprisonment has been a recurrent theme throughout Italian cultural production.

Possible Topics: * inclusion or exclusion * letters from prison as genre * intellectual and physical confinement * structures of power * domestic and public space * forced silence * immigration and emigration * political exile * travesties of justice * intramural relationships * freedom as illusion * the Holocaust

The conference will focus primarily on Italian culture but topics may encompass art history, history, film studies, philosophy, music, political science, religion, gender studies or any other relevant discipline.

Comparative and interdisciplinary approaches pertinent to Italian Studies are welcome.